The Internet Is Giving $128,000 (And Counting) To This Incredibly Generous Homeless Guy

A video published Monday about Thomas, a homeless man, went mega
viral, wracking up nearly 2 million views in about a day (now up
to over 14
million almost 28 million views).

Hours after that, via an Indiegogo crowdfunding site, the
Internet had pledged to give the man
more than $13,000. By December 24 the tally was over $75,000;
by 26, $101,000 and as of December 30, the total was over
$128,000 and still climbing, though not as fast.

Here's what happened: YouTube
prankster star Josh Paler Lin wanted to find out what happens
if you give a homeless guy $100. How would he spend that money?
He approached Thomas, who was holding a sign on the street asking
for money, and gave him $100. Thomas was near tears at the amount
and tried to refuse but Lin insisted.

Lin then followed Thomas with a camera. Thomas beelined for a
liquor store.

But it turns out, Thomas bought food at the store. He then walked
to a nearby park and handed the food out to other homeless folks,
people he didn't know.

Lin, who was hiding and filming, was floored. He came out of
hiding and apologized to Thomas.

Thomas has been homeless for about four months, he told Lin when
asked. He wound up on the street after both of his parents died.
They had grown ill and their insurance didn't cover all of their
care, so he quit his job to take care of them. After they died,
their condo was sold to pay the bills and he had no place to go.

"There's a lot of people that are just victims of circumstance
and they didn't go homeless because they're lazy or ... it could
be a divorce, one thing leads to another and the man sells his
boat, his home, everything, and all of a sudden he finds out he's
got no money. There's a lot of good people that are homeless," he
told Lin.

The man touched Lin so much, he insisted Thomas take another
$100. But it touched viewers so much, they insisted that Lin set
up a crowdfunding account where they could donate to help get
Thomas back on his feet.

In the time it took us to write this post, the account went from
$10,000 to more than $13,000. The Internet is going to be very
generous on this one. We'll update this post with the final
donation number when the fund raising ends.